Every year since 1988 my mother's side of the family gets together the day after Christmas for a family party that rotates locations between my mom and her siblings. This year it was at our house. We usually eat, exchange real gifts and gag gifts and play lots of card games. This year my parents went a little crazy and had a bunch of ice breaker games and bought a bunch of door prizes as well. We have enjoyed relaxing and wondering if we should shower or not. Kim usually goes one way and I choose another. Kim tells me that we promised our Indy Cousins a post about what actually happened this year at the party, but I am going to let her type because she has been slacking of late. That post will come soon, but not now because my parents computer (from which I am writing) is dial-up and SLOOOOOOOOW. So I will have my dad e-mail me the pics instead of waiting 10 minutes to upload one little picture. Kim will write soon.
December 28, 2006
Christmas in MI
Every year since 1988 my mother's side of the family gets together the day after Christmas for a family party that rotates locations between my mom and her siblings. This year it was at our house. We usually eat, exchange real gifts and gag gifts and play lots of card games. This year my parents went a little crazy and had a bunch of ice breaker games and bought a bunch of door prizes as well. We have enjoyed relaxing and wondering if we should shower or not. Kim usually goes one way and I choose another. Kim tells me that we promised our Indy Cousins a post about what actually happened this year at the party, but I am going to let her type because she has been slacking of late. That post will come soon, but not now because my parents computer (from which I am writing) is dial-up and SLOOOOOOOOW. So I will have my dad e-mail me the pics instead of waiting 10 minutes to upload one little picture. Kim will write soon.
December 23, 2006
An Advent Prayer
"O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the most high, and reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other, ordering all things well: Come and teach us the way of prudence.
Even so, come Lord Jesus
O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.
Even so, come Lord Jesus
O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign to the people, before whom kings shall shut their mouths and the nations shall seek: Come and deliver us and do not delay.
Even so, come Lord Jesus
O Key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel, who opens and no one can shut, who shuts and no one can open: Come and bring the prisoners from the prison house, those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
Even so, come Lord Jesus
O Daystar, splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness: Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
Even so, come Lord Jesus
O King of the nations, and their desire, the corner-stone making both one: Come and save us, whom you formed from the dust.
Even so, come Lord Jesus
O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the desire of all nations and their Savior: Come and save us, O Lord our God.
Even so, come Lord Jesus"
-Author Unknown, 9th century
*****************************
Merry Christmas Everyone! We are off to Michigan for a week with family and friends. As we are reminded of Christ's first advent this Christmas, may we be on the lookout for his work today in and around us through his precious Spirit as we wait in expectation for his second advent and his kingdom reign. We echo the angels words to the shepherds on that first Christmas night:
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Luke 2:14
Lucas & Kim
December 18, 2006
10th Annual IAWL Christmas Party (and other holidays)
The first "It's a Wonderful Life" Christmas Party was held spontaneously on Saturday, Dec 5, 1997. 
After a round of Christmas caroling around the campus of Hillsdale College, we crammed around 20 people into the small T.V. room in our dorm to watch the movie. The 10th installment was a bit classier. Kim prepared crostini, meatballs and numerous dips and desserts for the 17 people that came. Lots of candles and we even had the fireplace going (can you find it in the picture?) . 
For the first time, the hors d'ourves and the movie were in separate locations. I was able to reserve one of our lecture halls on campus, which has equipment for showing movies. This was a real treat. And since it felt like an actual theater, this is the first year that everybody actually watched the whole film. Ironically, the movie was also on NBC this past Saturday. Who knew? 
Joel and Allie made the trip from Harvard over here. Joel has made it to 9 out of the 10 IAWL Christmas Parties. He was able to make it when he lived in Japan, but missed it by a week when he lived in Cambridge, England. We'll see how he does next year when they are living in Milwaukee. The other pictures are the Turkey Kim cooked for Thanksgiving. This was our first year we were home for Thanksgiving and not with family. We had four other couples over and did a potluck Thanksgiving meal. The other picture is Kim dressed up for Halloween. Everybody in the activities department dressed up according to their "Old MacDonald" theme. Any guesses as to what Kim is?
December 15, 2006
In Honor of our 100th Post...
One hundred is also:
-The number of years in a century
-A 100 year old person is known as a centenarian
-The number of pounds in an American short hundredweight
-The number of subunits into which many of the world's currencies are divided; for example, one euro is one hundred cents and one Pound Sterling is one hundred pence
-The number of verses in the pop song 99 Bottles of Beer
-The denomination of the U.S. hundred-dollar bill with Benjamin Franklin's portrait; the "Benjamin" is the largest U.S. bill in print
-The denomination of American savings bonds with Thomas Jefferson's portrait
-The denomination of American treasury bonds with Andrew Jackson's portrait
-The number of tiles in a standard Scrabble set
-In Greece, India and Israel, 100 is the police telephone number.
-In Belgium, 100 is the ambulance telephone number.
-In United Kingdom, 100 is the operator telephone number
-"The First Hundred Days" is an arbitrary benchmark of a President of the United States' performance at the beginning of his term
-The number of poems in the Japanese poetry anthology Hyakunin Isshu
-The record number of points scored in one NBA game, set by Wilt Chamberlain on March 2, 1962
-100 is the atomic number of fermium, an actinide
-100 degrees Celsius is the boiling temperature of pure water at sea level
-One hundred is the square of 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standard SI prefix for a hundred is "hecto-".
-It is the sum of the first nine prime numbers, as well as the sum of two prime numbers (47 + 53), and the sum of the cubes of the first four integers (100 = 13 + 23 + 33 + 43). Also, 26 + 62 = 100, thus 100 is a Leyland number.
-100 (one hundred) (the Roman numeral is C for centum) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
Thanks to our friends at Wikipedia for the content of this post.
Do you have any "100" that we should add?
-The number of years in a century
-A 100 year old person is known as a centenarian
-The number of pounds in an American short hundredweight
-The number of subunits into which many of the world's currencies are divided; for example, one euro is one hundred cents and one Pound Sterling is one hundred pence
-The number of verses in the pop song 99 Bottles of Beer
-The denomination of the U.S. hundred-dollar bill with Benjamin Franklin's portrait; the "Benjamin" is the largest U.S. bill in print
-The denomination of American savings bonds with Thomas Jefferson's portrait
-The denomination of American treasury bonds with Andrew Jackson's portrait
-The number of tiles in a standard Scrabble set
-In Greece, India and Israel, 100 is the police telephone number.
-In Belgium, 100 is the ambulance telephone number.
-In United Kingdom, 100 is the operator telephone number
-"The First Hundred Days" is an arbitrary benchmark of a President of the United States' performance at the beginning of his term
-The number of poems in the Japanese poetry anthology Hyakunin Isshu
-The record number of points scored in one NBA game, set by Wilt Chamberlain on March 2, 1962
-100 is the atomic number of fermium, an actinide
-100 degrees Celsius is the boiling temperature of pure water at sea level
-One hundred is the square of 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standard SI prefix for a hundred is "hecto-".
-It is the sum of the first nine prime numbers, as well as the sum of two prime numbers (47 + 53), and the sum of the cubes of the first four integers (100 = 13 + 23 + 33 + 43). Also, 26 + 62 = 100, thus 100 is a Leyland number.
-100 (one hundred) (the Roman numeral is C for centum) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
Thanks to our friends at Wikipedia for the content of this post.
Do you have any "100" that we should add?
December 14, 2006
The Hidden Danger of Ice Scrapers
To all who are wondering where I've been...the answer is in school. To make a long story short, I'm trying to do in 7 weeks what most take at least 3 months to do...so that's why I've been a little absent. I should be done soon, and then I will come back. However, I did have a classic story that I thought I would share with all of you. So far we haven't had much of a winter aside from a few flurries here and there, and a few frosty mornings. My story begins one frosty morning about a week ago. It was the first time I had to use the ice scraper and I was so thankful that Lucas had bought a brand new ice scraper that worked so nicely on the windows. I scraped off the frost, dropped the ice scraper next to the seat, and proceeded with my day...never realizing the hidden danger that awaited me. In fact, I didn't even have an inkling of the danger until the next morning (a beautiful, sunny, and slightly warm morning which required absolutely no scraping). I unlocked the car, tossed my things in the passenger's seat, and plopped into the car. It was at this moment that I felt a sharp pain in my upper left thigh. I looked down and realized that when I dropped the ice scraper next to the seat it had gotten caught on the lever that moves the seat. It had been sitting directly in line with the top of the seat (which is why I didn't notice that it was there) but when I sat down the seat smooshed and the ice scraper did not. At this point I thought, "hmm...that's going to leave a nasty bruise," and took off to work. It wasn't until I was getting out of the car at work that I began to think something more might be wrong. There was still a stabbing pain (a scratch and a bruise should have worn off in the 20 minutes) and as I walked I began to feel that maybe there was a wet spot. I got inside and sure enough I had an ice scraper edge shaped hole in my pants and thigh...and there was definitely blood. I won't describe the scene that followed, as I'm sure you can imagine what happened next. All I will say is that it was awfully embarrassing to hide in our office until my pants had dried, and doubly embarrassing to walk around the rest of the day with a limp and a hole in the back of my pants and tell everyone who asked, "I sat on an ice scraper." So let this be a lesson to all of you as we enter a season of frost and ice...make sure when you put your ice scraper in the car that the sharp, pointy edge is facing the back seat!
Whoa, what has happened here?
Hey, hey. Decided to spice things up a bit with the semester now over. A new format and also links to friends and other favorite sites. If you have any suggestions, let us know. If you are a friend and have a blog and think that we should link to it, let us know that too. One in particular I will mention, Theology of the Body, is a site described as "young people standing with the saints to proclaim Christ the Lord." It was started by a dear friend of mine from Hillsdale (whose nickname is a bakery item that I enjoy in the blueberry variety). The reason I mention it is that I am also a contributor at this blog, although rather infrequent. The following is a post I put up at the site yesterday:
The Three Advents 
"Over the past centuries the liturgy of the church has developed a spirituality particularly for Christians during Advent. Both Sunday liturgies and the daily Scripture readings have been designed to direct our journey into the Advent experience of the mystery of Christ. Our parents in the faith have chosen Scriptures that accent three Advents: the Advent of Christ coming into our own lives, the Advent of Christ's physical birth in Bethlehem, and the Advent of his second coming at the end of history. While the liturgies and daily readings of Advent begin with the second coming and move as in a funnel toward the first coming, we are called to a vital personal encounter with Christ through all the readings."-Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time
"Over the past centuries the liturgy of the church has developed a spirituality particularly for Christians during Advent. Both Sunday liturgies and the daily Scripture readings have been designed to direct our journey into the Advent experience of the mystery of Christ. Our parents in the faith have chosen Scriptures that accent three Advents: the Advent of Christ coming into our own lives, the Advent of Christ's physical birth in Bethlehem, and the Advent of his second coming at the end of history. While the liturgies and daily readings of Advent begin with the second coming and move as in a funnel toward the first coming, we are called to a vital personal encounter with Christ through all the readings."-Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time
December 13, 2006
Finishing Strong
Hey Everybody,
As the semester winds down, I should have more time to blog. My apologies for not really offering a new post since Sept besides the Homecoming Fun. I have one exam left, which I will take tomorrow. The real student in this family right now is my wife. Kim is working on a course for her certification as an activities director. She found out in early November that after the New Year, new regulations were going to be added and the price for the course would increase, so she has been cramming in this 6 month course into 6 weeks! She is almost done and is aiming for next Thursday to be done since it is a very special and important day (hint, hint). Please keep her and her sanity in your prayers as she works hard to finish the course. This Saturday we will be hosting our 10th annual "It's a Wonderful Life" Christmas Party. Pictures and a report will follow next week. I will also keep busy through exegesis and sermon preparation for Dec 31 when I preach at my church on Luke 3. We hope that all of you are able to keep an expectant advent during these weeks leading up to Christmas!
As the semester winds down, I should have more time to blog. My apologies for not really offering a new post since Sept besides the Homecoming Fun. I have one exam left, which I will take tomorrow. The real student in this family right now is my wife. Kim is working on a course for her certification as an activities director. She found out in early November that after the New Year, new regulations were going to be added and the price for the course would increase, so she has been cramming in this 6 month course into 6 weeks! She is almost done and is aiming for next Thursday to be done since it is a very special and important day (hint, hint). Please keep her and her sanity in your prayers as she works hard to finish the course. This Saturday we will be hosting our 10th annual "It's a Wonderful Life" Christmas Party. Pictures and a report will follow next week. I will also keep busy through exegesis and sermon preparation for Dec 31 when I preach at my church on Luke 3. We hope that all of you are able to keep an expectant advent during these weeks leading up to Christmas!
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